German automaker BMW has unveiled its first-ever 4-door electric gran coupe, the i4 at the BMW annual conference. The new i4 is in line with BMW’s plans of launching as many as 12 electric vehicles on sale by 2023 and also make an electric option for 90% of its current products by then. The BMW i4 gran coupe will go on sale at a later stage this year. The BMW i4 is an electrified version of the 4-series which itself is based on the 3-series.
More details
Talking now about the i4’s design, it features two huge kidney grilles up front which borrow their design and texture from the recent India entrant, the M340i and the grille size from the new M3. You get a signature BMW headlight pair with a very aggressive line that extends the line of the headlights towards the grille. From the sides, you can clearly witness the sloping roofline and interestingly, the alloys have been painted white. Yes, not black, not red, not anything else but white which on second thoughts kind of gels up with an electric car. The rear is neatly designed and there are some blue accents around the car which may signify that this thing is environment friendly.
Interiors
The i4’s interiors will borrow some bits from the BMW iX flagship electric SUV as well as a few bits here and there from the 3-series and the 4-series. The i4 will also feature BMW’s 8th-gen iDrive operating system which debuted on the iX, will according to BMW offer a lot of customization and control options. It will also get a huge new curve screen which will house 2 different screens that are merged – a mammoth 14.9” touch infotainment system and a 12.3” digital instrument cluster.
The electric powertrain on the i4 consists of an 80 kWh battery pack that offers an impressive range of almost 590 km and according to BMW, weighs only 550 kilos. The battery pack produces 523 horses of peak power and can sprint from 0-100 in a rather commendable 4 seconds while the top speed of just a shade under 200 km/hr, 198 km/hr to be precise. Along with all that power, it also comes with BMW’s latest fast-charging system which supports up to 150 kW. Should your i4 be connected to the right kind of charger, your battery level will zoom to 80 from dead in 35 minutes.
Ah, did we mention the i4 line-up is also going to feature an M-performance model in the future? What’s a better love story than twilight they ask? An M and a BMW they said. And boy, they are correct.